Thursday, October 29, 2015

Former clerk Kim Birge sentenced to six years in federal custody, ordered to make restitution

By Jan Skutch

Former Chatham County Probate Court Chief Clerk Kim Birge on Friday
was sentenced to six years in federal prison and ordered to make
restitution of more than $751,000 for her admissions to stealing
$232,000 from the court.

U.S. District Judge William T. Moore Jr. also ordered Birge, 61, to
serve three years supervised release after completion of her custody
term but imposed no fine citing her inability to pay.

There is no parole in a federal sentence.

She will have until 2 p.m. on Nov. 20 to report to a federal facility designated for custody.

Birge, standing with attorney Tom Withers, told Moore that she
“wanted to ask forgiveness for everybody who has been affected by my
wrongdoing.

“I am ashamed and embarrassed.”

But she asked Moore to consider her efforts to beat the twin problems
of pain medication and gambling addiction and said, “I never meant to
hurt anyone.”

“I promise to you that I will never let anyone down again,” Birge said.

“This is atrocious,” Clarence Bynes Jr., who was one of Birge’s 33
individual victims, told Moore.

“There was no fear here. … This was just
greed. Why would anyone do this to young kids. … Ms. Birge should be
ashamed.”

He told the judge he lost $217,000 with Probate Court from the sale
of his father’s house. He did not learn of the theft until the day he
went to claim the money and was told his money was gone.

“I’m sorry. I don’t see no leniency. … Your honor, this is not fair,” Bynes said.

His testimony, one of three victims to address the court, came after
Birge’s sister-in-law, Karen Birge Lang, testified the family could not
believe her conduct.

“Everyone depended on her,” Lang said. “Obviously she’s been under a lot of stress for a number of years.”

Birge’s father, Robert Helmey, also testified he did not know what had occurred.

“I don’t know. It’s not Kim,” he said. “I ask for a second chance in life for her.”

Birge pleaded guilty on July 31 to stealing $232,000 from the court
as part of a scheme in which the government said she stole more than
$750,000 over a three-year period.

As part of the plea to the mail fraud count, prosecutors dismissed the remaining counts in the indictment.

A pre-sentencing investigation identified 33 individual victims, two
estates and Chatham County Probate Court that suffered loses as the
result of her conduct.

Moore said the 36 victims suffered actual loses, adding that none of the funds ever belonged to the court.

The issue then was “who paid what money to whom,” Moore said.

He set the actual restitution in the case at $751,715.95.‘Life spiraled out of control’

Assistant U.S. Attorney Scarlett Nokes told Moore that despite
Birge’s battles with both drugs since 2008 and gambling excesses since
2003, she did not seek help until her crimes were discovered.

The case was in court because Birge victimized people who were trusting her to do her job, Nokes said.

But, Nokes said, the government was standing by its agreement in the
negotiated plea to recommend that she be sentenced at the low end of the
sentencing guidelines of 63 months.

The recommended sentencing guidelines were 63-78 months, with the final sentence Moore’s alone.

Under the terms of her negotiated plea with the government, Birge
pleaded guilty to count three of a five-count indictment, charging her
with mail fraud and federal program fraud in the scheme the government
said lasted between January 2011 and November 2011.

But under federal sentencing guidelines, probation officers can
consider all alleged misconduct — including dismissed counts — in
reaching their recommendations to the judge.

During Birge’s appearance in court, the judge said he found it a
mystery that the 342 checks she had written to cash, 322 were checks for
less than $3,000 and only 20 in excess of that number.

Birge explained that Probate Judge Harris Lewis had told her she did
not have to get permission to write checks of $2,900 or less.

When Moore suggested that her conduct suggested she had a reason for
the check sums, Birge responded, “I didn’t try to hide anything from
anyone. … Much of the time I didn’t know what I was doing.

“I can’t explain why I did what I did and I’m sorry and I just pray for mercy.”

And Birge said that despite the probation report finding only an
audit of the court in 2009. “That’s not true. We were audited every
year. Every year they come in my office and sat in the record room and
audited our records,” Birge said.

Probation officials only found a 2009 audit and one in 2014.

The count to which she pleaded charged that between Sept. 21, 2011,
and Oct. 18, 2011, a check for $232,000 payable to the Chatham County
Probate Court was among those she used for herself.

In his pre-sentencing memorandum, Withers told Moore his client’s
life spun out of control because of painkiller drugs and gambling,
leaving her “shamed and a lifetime of good works destroyed.”

“Kim was unable to handle the losses and stressors in her life and
instead of seeking help, she turned to drugs and gambling,” Withers
said. “She would disappear into a world of addiction, and her life
spiraled out of control.

“Ultimately, Kim became addicted to the prescription opioids she was
taking for pain management. Kim became seriously addicted to video game
gambling in convenience stores both near her work and home.”

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